The Unknown Days
by Claudia McKnight
Summary: I had no idea when I stepped onto that plane that it would be the beginning of the end for me. Not two weeks later I would be dead. My name is Amelia Croft and this is my untold story.
1. Into the Mountains

_**New Tomb Raider short story! Focuses on Amelia Croft. Just a pet project will be finished shortly.**_

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Turbulence rocked the cabin of the plane bouncing me two feet in the air for the second time. Loose baggage was flying through the cabin dangerously. I grabbed my nine-year-old daughter from her from her position looking out the window and dragged her by the arm into the nearest single chair fastening her seatbelt tightly.

"Lady Croft, please remain seated," the pilot cautioned me.

I ignored him. My daughter's safety came before mine. Once she was securely fastened in her seat I took the one opposite of her securing my own seat belt.

"Are we going to crash?" my daughter asked.

"Not unless it's absolutely necessary," I assured her.

I gripped the arm rests so tightly my knuckles went white bouncing with every jolt. Across from me my daughter was doing the same. If not for her seatbelt she would have been tossed about the cabin like a rag doll. From the cockpit behind me I could hear the pilots shouting back and forth technical babble none of which sounded good.

"We're going full nose down!" one of the pilots cried despondently.

"Close your eyes, darling," I said to my daughter.

"I don't want to close my eyes," she responded bravely ever her father's daughter.

Moments later the cockpit windshield exploded inward at the force of impact. The plane rocked and quaked as it slid across the frozen ground. When the plane finally lurched to a stop my head snapped back so hard I was knocked unconscious. Everything went black as my head slumped forward.

"Mother, mother," a small voice said distantly.

I felt a hand gently shaking my shoulder. My head slowly cleared and I opened my eyes.

"Mother?" my daughter said once more.

"Darling!" I quickly unsnapped my seatbelt and wrapped her in my arms. "Darling, are you alright?"

I ran my hands across her face searching for any kind of injury.

"Mother, mother, I'm fine, really... but you're bleeding," she said touching my scalp pulling back red fingers.

I winced and placed my fingers on the large cut down my hairline. A shard of the broken window must have grazed my scalp during the crash. Now that I was aware of it, it was stinging something terrible.

"Are you alright, Mother?" my daughter asked.

"I'm fine," I said with a reassuring smile. "What about the pilots?"

Lara instantly began chewing on her fingernails when I asked.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I was too afraid to go up there."

"That's perfectly alright, darling," I said brushing my hands across her hair. "Stay here."

I rose to my feet and hesitantly stepped toward the cockpit motioning for my daughter to stay back. There was a good chance the pilots wouldn't have survived. I only saw briefly what had happened in the cockpit before turning away in shock. The two men had been shredded when the windshield exploded and their blood now stained almost every surface.

"My God," I said hand over my mouth grateful my daughter hadn't seen this.

Quickly stepping away from the cockpit I moved back toward my daughter who had resumed sitting in her chair. We needed to get out of here. There was no telling how stable the plane was. She looked up at me expectantly with her big brown eyes.

"The pilots?" she asked.

"Darling," I said kneeling down and taking her hand, "I'm afraid the pilots are no longer with us."

She didn't say anything but I was certain she understood. My daughter was very intelligent for her young age.

"We need to gather what supplies we can and find shelter elsewhere," I said heading for the back of the plane.

I found the emergency supply kits and handed the smaller one to my daughter. I wrapped her up tight in her coat and scarf trying to keep her as warm as possible. Setting the woolen beret on her head I reached for my own coat. Luckily the coat I had was longer than my skirt and would hopefully protect my legs from the cold. Unfortunately my navy sport jacket and pencil skirt weren't exactly mountain climbing attire. I desperately hoped to find a pair of snow boots but none were to be found leaving me to scale the mountains in my navy colored heels.

"Come along, darling," I said slinging my pack over my shoulder and making for the door.

Lara followed suit with a sort of maturity far beyond her years. I pulled the latch releasing the cabin door. It fell with a crunch onto the snow leaving the stairs pointing at dangerous angles. I carefully climbed out then turned to help my daughter.

"Hand me your pack," I said.

Lara tossed me her pack then moved to climb over the stairs. Suddenly the expression on her face changed.

"I've forgotten something!" she said running back into the plane.

"Lara!" I yelled.

I tried to get back into the plane but before I could she was back at the door a small pink book clasped in her hands.

"Lara, don't do that!" I exclaimed hand over my heart. "Who knows how precariously this plane is lodged here."

As if on cue the plane started to shift. I grabbed Lara by the arm and pulled her from the plane just moments before the snow collapsed under its front end sending it tumbling down the cliff to a lower ledge. I clutched her to me heart threatening to beat right out of my chest.

"You could have been in that!" I said turning her to face me. "Don't ever to that again."

She nodded her face pale. The thought of falling down the mountainside had obviously terrified her. I gave her a hug for a moment before making sure she was okay. I tucked her journal into her pack and handed it to her.

"Let's get moving."

Lara slid her small soft hand into mine and I gave it a reassuring squeeze.

If took us and hour to climb out of the crag our plane had landed in. Lara was still rather small and was struggling with the climb. The sun was just rising over the horizon as we topped the first ridge. I cried out in despair. In every direction as far the eyes could see there was only mountains and snow. Not a sign of civilization anywhere.

"What's that?" Lara said pointing.

My gaze followed her pointing straight to the building in the distance. My heart leapt. Shelter!

"An old Tibetan monastery," I told her, "an abandoned one by the look of it. We should be able to reach it by nightfall. Let's go."

I took my daughter's hand once more and together we began our trek. Unfortunately the monastery was farther away than I had estimated. Lara's feet started dragging early on. Nine-year-olds weren't meant for cross country trekking. The sun had already sunk below the ridges before we had reached the monastery.

"Are we there yet?" Lara asked again rubbing her sleepy eyes with blue tinted fingers.

"Just a little farther darling, I promise," I said for about the fifth time.

Finally a cavern appeared with architecture hinting at an entrance to the monastery. Once inside I could tell we were finally there. Buddhist carvings and architecture surrounded us covered in layers of ice.

"We'll stop here for tonight," I said. "Let's see if we can find something to start a fire."

I took a small hatchet from our survival packs and looked for any kind of exposed wood. Eventually I was able to hack off enough wood for a menial fire. I took what I had managed to get and added it to what little Lara had found. It took me another half an hour to get the frozen wood to burn. Once the fire was going I took out the food packets and attempted to make us some supper. I handed Lara a cup of watery soup when I was done. She took it and sipped at it cautiously. Stirring it she lifted her spoon then placed it back in the cup without eating any of it.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

Lara set her cup aside and hugging her knees to her chest looked at me across the fire with the absolute seriousness only she could attain.

"Mother, are we going to die?" she asked.

"Oh, no, darling, no," I said quickly moving around beside her and hugging her to my side. "We are not going to die. We are Crofts and if there is one thing you should know about us Crofts is we are survivors, we won't die easily. I want you to remember that, alright?"

She nodded not saying anything. I could tell she was scared. I was too. Despite all my comforting words I honestly had no idea how we were going to get out of here. My only hope was that as soon as our plane didn't arrive in London Richard would realize something went wrong and start looking for us. Until then we just had to stay alive.

"Now let's try to get some sleep," I said.

I pulled the blankets from my pack and wrapped them around us. Lara nestled into my side and as the firelight flickered fell into a peaceful sleep. I smiled glad she could rest. Sleep would not come so easily for me.


	2. Disappearing Act

I was awoken the next morning by Lara gently shaking me. Apparently I had fallen asleep sometime during the night. I unwrapped from our cocoon of blankets and stretched my stiff limbs. Together we packed up our little camp and headed further into the monastery hoping to find another way out.

The monastery had looked large from a distance but was huge on the inside. We spent the whole day wandering through the labyrinth of corridors before finally reaching a large room near the top. Lara wandered down the hall in front of me as I examined some worn script on the wall. Unfortunately my ancient Tibetan was rather rusty. Where was Richard when I needed him?

I looked around and Lara was gone. Panic rising I ran down the hall my heels clacking against the stone floors.

"Lara?" I called rounding the corner. There she was standing in the middle of the room. I clasped a hand over my heart. "I told you not to do that anymore. I don't want to lose you."

Lara looked down apologetically kicking her feet at the stones. I couldn't stay mad at her though, curiosity was her nature. I looked around the room we were in. It was a square room with vaulted ceilings. Five oddly shaped free-standing pillars stood in a circle in the center of the room and at the center of them was a much shorter stone dais. Peculiar place to find in a Tibetan monastery but I didn't ponder on it too much.

"Just see if you can find anything for the fire," I said venturing down another hallway. When it appeared to be a dead end I headed back to where I left Lara. "Did you find anything for the fire?"

I walked into the room to find Lara standing in front of the dais apparently having activated some kind of device. Gasping I ran towards her.

"No! Get back!" I shouted dragging her back from the device. "Good Lord, what is it?"

"There's something in the light!" Lara said pointing to the large metal ring that now stood erect behind the dais a glowing green discus of light inside it.

"Stay here," I said stepping toward the dais. I could hear the voices too. "What? Who are you?"

"... Lara... your daughter..." a hazy voice came through.

"What? What about my daughter?" I asked motioning for Lara to stay back.

"... don't touch the sword..." said the voice angrily.

"You stay away from her! She meant no harm!" I shouted at the voices.

"... take out the sword..."

"... NO..."

There was more than one voice now and they were contradicting each other. I looked back at Lara making sure she wouldn't come up here then looked to the sword. I examined it hesitantly. Who knows what would happen if I pulled it out, but then again what would happen if I didn't?

"Mother, what's happening? Who's there?" she asked me. I had no answer.

"...it'll explode unless you pull out the sword..." the second voice said.

"Oh God, NO!" I screamed.

I didn't think I just reacted. If the ring exploded it would kill us both. My hands wrapped around the sword hilt and I ripped it from the dais. There was a large flash of light so bright it knocked me backwards. I lost my grip on the sword and my feet were swept from the floor. For the next several moments I spun through the air having lost all control. I felt weightless as if I had no body whatsoever. Moments later the strange sensation ended and I crashed onto the floor. I rolled once or twice cracking my head so hard again floor I was knocked unconscious for the second time in two days leaving me sprawled helplessly across the stone floor.


	3. Where am I?

I woke sometime later not knowing how long I'd been unconscious. It could have been days or only a few hours. I ached everywhere and my head felt as if somebody had driven a spike through it. Propping myself up on my elbows I rubbed my head and muttered to myself about false warnings and the ruddy voices on the other side of the light. Despite their warnings the device had exploded anyway. Then a sickening thought occurred to me. If the explosion had enough power to knock me unconscious for who knows how long then what could it have done to my daughter?

Horrifying images ran through my head each one worse than the next. My eyes snapped open and I expected to see Lara, my Lara, tossed against the stones like so much rubbish cold as the floor she lay upon. A parent's worst nightmare, the death of their child. What awaited me we I opened my eyes was not what I had expected but equally as shocking. The square room of the monastery was gone replaced by a huge underground cavern with numerous springs on the walls spouting glowing blue liquid. A good distance away in the center of the cavern was some large ancient contraption of unknown design or origin. But I didn't care about any of those things. Pushing myself up onto wobbly feet I shrugged off pack and coat and my examined my immediate area.

"Where am I?" I asked myself.

Then I spotted the dais directly in front of me.

"Well now, that looks familiar," mused to myself. Surely enough surrounding me were five oddly shaped free standing columns on the edge of the ring of markings on the floor. "This is all identical to the one in Nepal. It must be a portal of some kind and when I pulled out the sword in Nepal it must have transported me here. So where will it take me once I'm already here?"

I examined the dais. Just as in Nepal there was a slit in the dais the same size as the sword. It must be the key to this ancient travel network. Without it I was stuck here. Backing away from the dais I stumbled over an object on the ground. The sword! It must have come through the portal with me. If it could have made the journey then perhaps Lara could as well.

"Lara?" I called head whipping about. "Lara!"

No response. I sighed shaking my head. It was foolish to hope she would be here. If she was I would have known by now. She wasn't here, I was certain of that. Call it mother's intuition. She had been too far away and hadn't been caught in the beam. My nine-year-old daughter was still in Nepal all by herself. I picked up the sword and stepped toward the dais.

"It is said that all roads lead to Rome, then where do all the roads from Rome lead to?" I mused quietly.

I fingered the hilt of the sword. There was a good chance using the portal again wouldn't land me back in Nepal but as for right now it was my only option. Clasping the hilt I drove the sword into the slit in the dais. A ring rose from the floor clanking into place behind the dais. This time there was no light and no voices. I stared at the ring for a moment then looked to the sword. My hand closed around the hilt.

"When in Rome, I guess," I said and pulled out the sword.

The ring shuddered for a moment then crashed to the floor leaving me standing stupidly sword in hand. It hadn't worked. No explosion of light, nothing. Convincing myself it was just a flaw I reinserted the sword and the ring rose into position once again. Taking a deep breath I gripped the sword and pulled it from the stone with the same result. Something was wrong. I was determined to get it to work though and tried again and again and again certain it would work eventually. After failing for the eighth time I stopped. The device was openly mocking me now, flouting my ignorance in my face. I slid the sword into the dais one last time then pulled it out just far enough to deactivate the device leaving it there like Arthur's Excalibur.

I found my survival pack and set about making myself a fire. Luckily I had been wearing the pack when I went through the portal. Getting some rest would be good for me. My head still ached from hitting the floor earlier.

_There has to be another way out of here,_ I thought as I drifted off to sleep. _The builders had to have dug a way down here before building the portal._

My eyes drifted to the other end of the cavern. There must be an exit over there. For now I would get some rest and when I awoke it would be time to implement escape plan two.

it would be time to implement escape plan two.


	4. Unexpected Company

I awoke some hours later cold and alone, sorer and stiffer now than I had been the day before. Digging out the small array of food supplies I managed to eat something before packing up the meager remains of the supplies. The walk across the cavern itself seemed daunting. I looked at the portal one last time then shaking my head and setting off across the room. The huge circular path wound its way around a large tower in the center. There seemed to be no way to reach it without falling into the malignant looking water. Now that I was closer I could see the giant serpentine figure head that adorned the head of the tower. Leaving the tower behind me I turned down the path leading away from the tower and the portal and hopefully towards an exit.

The quietness of this place was really starting to affect me. Not knowing how long I'd been here only attributed to the factor. It already felt like I had spent ages here. My presence seemed obtrusive in this ancient place. Every move I made from the clack of my heels on the stone paths to the brush of my skirt against my legs seemed to echo endlessly through the cavern. It was maddening. Even in its silence the place was far from peaceful. It was a looming, foreshadowing, silence before the storm kind of silence. It lay like a sleeping jungle cat waiting, waiting for something, something big. And when it comes along this place will awake and pounce and the very earth will shake with its arrival. The uneasiness crawling in the pit of my stomach made me even more eager to leave this place.

My thoughts subsided when I saw the archway huge and looming just in the distance. A way out! I was finally going to leave this horrid place. I hurried towards it heels clacking ever louder against the floor not that I cared. This was my ticket out. But I hesitated at the foot of the second staircase leading to the great stone archway. The first set had been solid enough but these were dangerously cracked and crumbling. A pillar had collapsed taking out half of the stairway. One misplaced step could send what remained crumbling into dust. Carefully placing each step I walked up the crumbling stairs. All went well until one of my heels became lodged in a crack. Removing my foot from the shoe I attempted to dislodge it but the dreadful thing wouldn't budge. My erratic movements pushed the stairs to their limit. There was a low rumbling sound and the stairs collapsed beneath me sending my sprawling to the floor. I'd had about enough of this. A person could only take so much head trauma.

I pushed up to a sitting position still slightly dazed. Surprisingly my shoe was still clutched in my hand the heel dangling drunkenly from a small chuck of fabric. I giggled madly as a rather curious thought occurred to me. If my fastidious seamstress saw me now she'd go absolutely mad. She'd call it a 'heinous crime against fashion!' The real heinous crime is scaling the Himalayas in those monstrosities. I pulled off the dreadful things and tossed them aside. They were useless now. If years of exploring with my husband had taught me anything was the necessity for the correct gear when doing any sort of field work and frankly I think this qualified.

"Amelia," a voice said softly. I looked around nervously. "Amelia..."

"Who's there?" I called getting to my feet.

Then I spotted him, the man standing not two yards away from me. He wore sturdy mountain boots, heavy pants, and a fur lined leather jacket. A top his head was a neat mop of brown hair so light it was almost blonde. Blue eyes stared out from behind a pair of almost round wire framed glasses perched halfway down his nose. I knew that face well.

"Richard?" I asked in disbelief. It couldn't be. He'd found me, he'd really found me! I ran into his arms holding him tightly.

"Oh, Amelia," he said pushing me back to get a look at me. "What have you gotten yourself into?"

He brushed the hair out of my face and examined the long cut near my scalp. I hastily explained to all that had happened since he left early from China leaving Lara and me to fly home on schedule.

"Lara," I suddenly remembered. "Lara, oh, Lara! Did you find her? Is she safe?"

Richard gave me a look that was hard to read. Then it clicked and I took a step back.

"You're not really here, are you?"

He looked at me sadly and shook his head.

"Well that's just great!" I said throwing my hands up. "I'm losing my ruddy mind! My head feels like I've been hit by a hammer, I'm having hallucinations, and on top of all that I'm trapped in this dark hole with no idea how to get out!"

"First of all," Richard said taking my hand, "you are not losing your mind, Amelia. You've been through a great ordeal and have been injured. You needed help; you weren't going to make it through this alone so you mind has created the image of me to help you get through this. I'm really just a projection of your consciousness. I can't tell you anything you don't already know. But I can tell you anything you do even if you don't know that you know it."

I sighed pinching the bridge of my nose. Even as a projection of my consciousness he was a genius. Getting over the fact that I was certainly losing my mind I started to figure a way up the now demolished stair case. I tossed my pack up onto the ledge then abandoning any kind of ladylike behavior scrambled up onto the ledge. Richard, a much more skilled climber, made it up with much less trouble. Together was walked into the next hall.

"Look at this," he said drawing my attention to the wall.

"What is it?"

"Some kind of mural," he said.

"It looks Norse," I commented.

"Yes, yes! This is Thor, the Norse god of thunder," he said gesturing to a figure explaining though I knew perfectly well what he was talking about. "This must be the battle of Ragnarӧk."

"So this," I said gesturing to the serpent, "must be Jӧrmungandr, the..."

"...the Midgard Serpent, yes," he finished for me. "We must be in one of the Norse underworlds."

"Underworlds?" I asked.

"Yes, in Norse mythology there were several underworlds consisting in layers one over the other. The top being Asgard, the realm of the gods, and the bottom being Helheim, realm of their goddess of death, Hel. There are others, such as Niflhelm, but I have no idea which we are in."

"Well I don't think it's Asgard," I muttered receiving a curious look from Richard. "But what is the Norse connection to the portal in Nepal and that great bloody contraption?"

"I'm not sure. The architecture down here is definitely Norse or proto-Norse at least..."

He continued to babble as the answer clicked inside my mind. The serpent head on the tower. Of course!

"Richard?"

"... this could be the resting place of Thor's..."

"Richard!"

He looked at me startled, "Yes?"

"Could that be Jӧrmungandr?"

He gazed out passed my pointing finger to the monster of a mechanism. I watched the realization dawn on his face. Apparently he agreed with my inference.

"All this time, Jӧrmungandr was just a metaphor?"

"Richard," I said grabbing his arm. "Richard we need to get moving."

"Right, yes, of course," he said shaking the realization from his head.

Together we wound our way through hallway after hallway. One after another was caved in or flooded or led absolutely nowhere. We explored until I could hardly stand and there were no more halls left to check. We had found no way out when we came to a square room with a deep well filled with the glowing liquid. This looked like it could have been the way out but the hall stopped abruptly at a sheer wall. Throwing myself against the wall I slid to the floor despairingly and dropped my head into my hands. Tears formed on the edges of my eyes.

"You're not giving up, are you?" Richard asked me.

"Yes," I said bitterly. "I'm giving up."

"You can't! What about your daughter, your family? We have to keep looking, there has to be another way out."

"There is no other way out!" I shouted at him giving up any efforts to be discreet. My dire situation had only complemented my building frustration until I finally snapped. "We checked them all. They're all caved in or flooded. Besides there is no we down here, just me! You're just a figment of my imagination. We might as well face it, there is no way out. I'm going to die down here."

Richard for once said nothing but from somewhere deep within the corridors came an unearthly shriek. My eyes flew to the hallway.

"What was that?" I asked voice cracking.

"I don't know," Richard answered.

I jumped to my feet and pulled my pack off my shoulder gripping it like a bludgeon. I don't know how effective my impromptu weapon would be against whatever was coming but one thing I knew for certain, I was doomed.


	5. Lost Forever

I never would have expected what came around the corner. The limping figure of a man appeared. Scraps of ruddy fabric hung off his body and a horned helmet sat on his head. When it finally came far enough into the light for me to see it I recoiled shocked.

"My God!"

The creature had once been a man but was now nothing but rotting flesh and bone. The creature shrieked and charged me. I swung my bag knocking it backwards. I swung it again and again until the creature tumbled backwards into the well.

"What was that thing?" I asked Richard.

"I must have been a thrall."

"A what?"

"A reanimated corpse. That glowing water down there is called eitr. It's an ancient mythological substance that is extremely poisonous. It must have reanimated the corpses of those who died here. Now their sole purpose is to destroy anything that invades this place."

Fantastic! There was a louder lower growl emitting from the hall now. The next thing to round the corner was a ten times my size and even more terrifying that the dead Viking. A huge yeti corpse came pounding my direction with large heavy steps. I would never defeat that with my sack of supplies.

My breath caught and my heart began beating wildly inside my chest. I backed into a gap between two pillars pressing myself against the wall. The yeti kept advancing. Its massive rotting hand dug between the columns reaching for me. It grazed my arm ripping the sleeve off my jacket. It tried again and again. I managed to free the hatchet from my pack before it was ripped away too. Finally the beast's massive hand hooked me and pulled me from my hiding spot.

I screamed as the beast squeeze my midsection until ribs cracked. It swung me about like a rag doll trying to make me stop. Wielding my hatchet I drove it over and over again into the creature's meaty fist hacking away hunks of moldering flesh. The beast shrieked and slammed me against a wall. The blur of motion was dizzying but I kept on hacking its hand. Finally it got fed up with me and threw me away. I slammed into the wall on the other side of the room. It wasn't the floor beneath me now but the well of eitr. I plummeted down through the air into the well below. This was the end.

I died that day the instant I touched the eitr. I was thirty-six years old. I had been married for twelve and a mother for nine. There was so much I had left undone, so much I still wanted to do. But my only regret as I spun through the air that day was that I would never know what had become of my daughter, my little Lara. Hopefully she made it out of those mountains and back to her father. As for me, I was lost... forever.


End file.
